I Lost Faith In The Human Race Long Ago
by Jedi-Bant
Summary: When Harry is 3 the Dursley's move to a farm in Scotland, he grows up in a stable and makes friends with a horse, he later finds he has the power to talk to horses.
1. Life in a stable

Chapter 1  
  
When Harry was 3 Vernon Dursley got a huge bonus from his work and they decided to move to a farm in Scotland, so that they could start over, they rented out their old house and brought a property in the north of Scotland.  
  
It wasn't a large place but a reasonably sized farmhouse with 3 paddocks and 2 large stable that could hold about 5 horses each. The property come with 2 mares and a stallion, but the problem was that they hadn't been broken (trained) yet so were practically wild. Wanting to get the most out of the horses he worked hard to get the wild horses rideable.  
  
Petunia and Vernon had first met at a horse riding school, so it wasn't like they were new to riding. But they wanted to teach Dudley the sport and they could use Harry to get the horses use to a rider as an added bonus.  
  
When Harry turned 4 Vernon decided that the Stallion and the older of the mares would never be rideable but they would both be good for breeding. For once he was right and a year later the mare who Petunia had named Snowgum, gave birth to a foal, Lightning.  
  
Harry, who was now 5, spent most of his time with the horses as his room was in the stables, so he was able to teach himself how to ride. He was soon the only person who could ride Snowgum and he spent the nights asleep snuggled up next to Lightning.  
  
As Lightning got older Vernon started trying to break him in for riding. But like his mother he would go mad whenever anyone other then Harry went near him, so he had to give up and again keep him for breeding purposes.  
  
When Harry was 7 he started to go out on Lightning late at night on long rides, this wasn't hard as Harry was still living in the stables with the horses, so his relatives never knew he had left.  
  
The two were very close to each other having grown up together. They quickly began to understand as Harry soon found he could talk to horses as if they were human. They could also work out each others emotions by the looks on their faces and their body language without saying a word. There were some nights where Harry would fall asleep on Lightning's back after a long ride and Lightning would have to bring him back himself.  
  
Harry wasn't strong enough to do up a Girth (A/N Spelling?) strap so he learnt to ride bare and without a bridle, because Lightning didn't like them. They both loved nothing more then to Gallop across the paddocks at night and sometimes through the nearby forests.  
  
But when Harry was 9 disaster struck and Vernon decided that Snowgum was to old to keep and sold her to a meat factory.  
  
Harry and Lightning were devastated. They decided to run away so that Vernon could never sell Lightning. Harry stole food from the kitchen, as well as a knife and some matches to light a fire if needed. Harry then packed some cloths, a medical kit and the tools needed to care for a horse.  
  
They then disappeared into the night together.  
  
They rode for a weeks, stopping and hiding in the day, till they wee sure that they were far enough away that they wouldn't be found by Vernon. Then found a forest nearby where they decided to use as their home from then on.  
  
Most children would have been afraid in the forest, with it's creepy branches making evil patterns with the moonlight. But Harry know that Lightning would protect him and it was better then Vernon getting them.  
  
Over the next three years he lived in the forest hunting for his own food and only having to worry about himself and Lightning. One of the things he loved to do with his time was to stork the huge man that walked through the forest most nights.  
  
He knew that the man live and worked at the castle that was on one side of the forest but he stayed away from that part of the forest, he had never been good with people and that wasn't going to change now.  
  
But something's can't last forever. 


	2. Caught

A/N I am making it so that Harry was in the forest for 4 years. So he has missed 1st year. Hermione and Ron are in 2nd year and are friends.  
  
Chapter 2  
  
They ran as fast as they could through the under growth. They didn't know what it was that they were running from but they knew that they had to get as far away as possible from it.  
  
Harry saw a castle in front of them and told Lightning to go faster. As they left the undercover of the forest, that had been their home for the last 3 years, what ever had been following them stopped its chase and went off to find something easier to catch.  
  
They looked up at the castle that towered over them. Harry had always insisted that they stay away from the castle. His relatives had been the only people he had ever met. His Aunt and Uncle had refused to waste money on him going to school when all they thought he was good for was cleaning out the stables.  
  
But this time, curiosity got the better of him.  
  
They slowed to a walk and quietly approached the castle. At the entrance Harry slid of Lightning's back into the ground. "You stay here while I look around." He told the horse. He then nimbly ran up the stairs not making a sound and disappeared through the door.  
  
After an hour of wandering around the huge castle lots of people started to come out into the hall ways. He hid in a small room off the side of the corridor and waited for them all to leave.  
  
An hour later he deemed it safe to emerge and continued to wander around the hall. Now that his curiosity was satisfied he started to do something more useful. Find food.  
  
Every time that people came out of the rooms around him he would hide and wait for it to pass. But around midday he wasn't so lucky.  
  
He had been trying to stay as far away as possible from the portraits that seemed to be moving. He had dismissed this as a new piece of technology that had come out these last few years, but it still made him feel uncomfortable with them watching him.  
  
He was so caught up in watching the portraits that he totally missed a really grumpy looking man, who walked up behind him and grabbed his arm. "What do you think your doing?" he snapped turning Harry around to face him. Harry immediately started to struggle against the man desperate to get away.  
  
"Oh no you don't we're going to the headmaster, he can sort you out." The man started to drag the boy down the hallways till they got to the large entrance hall that he had come into. He was pulled into another large room to the side.  
  
Inside were more people then he had ever seen in his life. Most seemed to be around his age but there were also a group of adults sitting at a table higher up and at the very back of the hall. Everyone was eating and that just made Harry feel hungrier then he already was, he hadn't eaten in two weeks after all.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore." The man called causing everyone to stop eating and look at them. "I found this boy wandering around in the dungeons. But I've never seen him before." The man at in the middle of the top table stood and walked towards them. He came up to them and knelt down in front of Harry who was small for his age. The man looked at him in the eyes as if trying to read his soul.  
  
"Do you have a name, young man?" Dumbledore asked. "Yes." Harry replied shortly not wanting to talk to the man. "Are you going to tell me what it is?" He asked patently. "No." "Ok, where are your parents?" "Dead." The man seemed a bit taken aback by his abrupt manner but continued. "Well then where are you guardians?" Harry had had enough now. "Look none of this is any of your business." Harry snapped.  
  
Everyone in the room shared open-mouthed at him, he guessed that no-one was ever rude to this old man but he didn't care. He used this time to twist out of the mans grasp and pull out the kitchen knife that he had stolen from his aunt. He stabbed the knife into the arm of the man who had caught him and ran for the door.  
  
"STOP!" someone yelled behind him. Harry stopped and slowly turned around. The rest of the adults had run over and were now all pointing sticks at.him. This was too much for Harry and he burst out laughing. Everyone stared at him as if he were completely bonkers.  
  
"Is that it?" he asked when he had controlled his laughter. "Sticks? Oh I'm so scared." Harry turned around again and walled out the door just as young boy ran through the door knocking him over.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore, sir. The horse has gone completely bezerk. It keeps trying to enter the castle, we can't calm it down!" the boy exclaimed. The old man walked over and put a hand on the boys shoulder, "Ok Mr Weasley lets go see what we can do to calm the pore creature." The two left and the rest of the school stood up and followed.  
  
While he was on the floor the teachers had taken the chance to disarm Harry and a tall man with black, greasy looking hair had grabbed his arms. When all the students had left the hall the greasy man lead him outside as well to see what was going on.  
  
Outside the old man was trying to approach Lightning without getting stomped on. Only Harry knew that no man or woman other then himself would have any chance of getting close to the wild horse and so let Lightning deal with it himself.  
  
After have a few near misses the old man brought his 'stick' out again and pointed it at the horse. Harry rolled his, 'As if he's going to be scared of a stick' the thought sarcastically.  
  
But he soon found out how wrong he was.  
  
The man said some strange words that he couldn't make out and a bridle, saddle, and leading rope appeared on the horse.  
  
Lightning, being wild and remembering Vernon Dursley's treatment of him went mad. Bunking around trying to get the saddle off. The tall man that Harry had seen in the forest came up and caught the rope that was now attached to the horses head and tried to still the animal.  
  
"Hey what do you think your doing?" Harry yelled. The man holding him lost his grip at the sudden sound from the boy and Harry took the chance to run to his long time friend.  
  
Everyone watched as he ran up to the man and kicked him as hard as possible making the man let go of the rope. Harry went straight to Lightning and removed the saddle and bridle. The horse gave Harry the closest thing to a hug it could do by wrapping his head around Harry's.  
  
Harry then turned to the old man, Dumbledore, "I can see that you are all rather dim as it is!" Most of them cried out in protest to his words, "But anyone should know that you can't just put a saddle on a wild horse. Unless you have a death wish." He snapped at them all.  
  
"Is this your animal?" Dumbledore queried. "What is with you and asking questions? Is that the only type of sentence you can form?" Harry snapped back. The strict looking woman who was standing nearby looked mortified, "Where are your manners young man. You should have more respect for your elders."  
  
"Look lady, you don't know a thing about me so don't you dare think you can tell me how to live my life." He said. He patted Lightning on the neck signalling for him to kneel so he could get on. When he was sure that Harry was on Lightning stood and turned towards the forest.  
  
"What do you think you are going? Come back here this instant." The woman said. Harry signalled for the horse to turn and looked coldly back at the woman.  
  
"I am going home where I don't have to put up with all you disgusting creatures, and I will not come back because it will mean that I have to come near you again, which is the last thing I want to do. For the last 4 years I have managed to stay away from the human race and if I had in my way humans would be wiped from the Earth, you are heart-less, mind-less creatures with no emotions and all you are good for is destroying the beautiful world around you. I had it my way I would never have seen another human till the day I die." Harry ranted on needing to get rid of the feelings that he had kept locked up inside him his whole life.  
  
He then turned around and they galloped back into the forest. Getting as much distance as possible between him and the school. 


	3. Deal

**Chapter 3**

For the next few weeks all that Hogwarts talked about was the young boy on his horse who had rejected man-kind. There were hundreds of different theories going around on how he ended up in the forest and what had made him snap,

That he had been abused by his family,

That he had been kicked out of home,

That he had run away to join the circus and gotten lost,

The list of rumours when on and on.

Dumbledore sent search parties out to find the boy but he could never be found. For weeks the teachers would take turns trying to find the boy but they all failed.

Although they later found out that their effort was wasted, as he, came to them.

Almost a month after Harry had been caught in the school, Harry wasn't doing to well at all. Even before he went to the school, hunting hadn't been to good and it was getting close to winter. The greasy haired teacher had made things worse by taking away his knife, his only means of getting fresh meat and his only defence other then running.

So it was decided that Harry needed to sneak back into the castle and get another weapon of any kind that he could use to stay alive.

So in the middle of the night when he new that the teachers would be in the forest looking for him he snuck through the door and into the room where everyone had been eating in the hope that there would be a stray knife that hadn't been cleared away.

For hours he searched the room for any type of weapon also going into the small room at the back of the hall but all he could find was an axe that was being held by a suit of armour and he was sure that he would never be able to lift it in the starved state that he was in.

As the hours pass Harry got more and more tired as the little energy he had left dwindled away. In the end he collapsed on the floor and managed to crawl into a corner in the hope that he wouldn't be noticed when the school came in for breakfast.

At 7:00AM the next day the school started to trickle in for the morning meal. No one noticed the young boy curled up in the corner until Professor Snape got up to go and tell the Gryffindor students of for the slightest indiscretion.

As everyone watched him approach the table, some watching eagerly to see who would be picked on this morning, others scared they would be the teacher's target.

But just as he got to the end of the table he did something that no one in the room had ever seen him do before.

He tripped and fell flat on his face.

There was complete silence for a minute before the whole school, teachers and all burst out laughing in some shape or form. Snape turned over to see what had humiliated him so much only to find himself staring into a pair of brilliant green eyes.

They stared at each other for a moment before Harry collapsed back into unconsciousness. Snape stood and walked over to the boy, he checked to make sure that he still had a pulse before standing up again.

"Headmaster, I think we have found our running away forest dweller." All laughter in the room seised and Dumbledore went over to where the Potions master was standing.

"So it would seem Severus. Poppy could you come over here please." Madame Pomfrey walked over and quickly began to check the boy over for injuries. After a moment she stood up and turned to the Headmaster.

"There is nothing wrong except that he hasn't eaten properly in over a month. Most likely because it is nearing winter and lots of the animals he would use for food are going into hibernation." She explained.

"Or it could be the fact that you took away the only weapon I had and had no way of catching food," said a weak voice from the floor.

They all looked down to see Harry trying to get up off the floor.

"You really shouldn't be getting up Mr....?" Madame Pomfrey told him.

"Probably not but it's better then staying here." Harry replied completely ignoring the request of his name.

"What have you got against us anyway we did nothing to you?" a student nearby inquired.

"It's not something you did, I just hate the human race as a whole," Harry stated, trying to move around the teachers in front of him.

"Move," he demanded when they wouldn't let him past.

"Not until you tell us your name," the old man said.

"How about...no." he tried to get past them again but he was pushed back, "you have no right to keep me here."

"I think we do, you are too young to be wandering around the forbidden forest alone."

"Forbidden Forest, is that what you call it. So that's why no one ever goes there, except that big guy," he pointed to Hagrid so they would know who he was talking to.

"His name is Hagrid." The old man supplied.

"Whatever,"

"How about this, you eat a descent meal and agree to meet Hagrid at his hut on the edge of the forest every week and we'll let you go back to the forest and we'll leave you alone." Dumbledore suggested.

"And what if we don't come to Hagrid's?"

"Then we will keep looking for you and when we catch you we will keep you in the castle by force."

Harry thought about it, Hagrid wasn't that bad and Harry was sure he wasn't completely human.

"Alright," he agreed, "but I'll come once a month."

"Twice a month." Dumbledore bargained.

"Fine but remember I don't exactly have a calendar so I may be late, also I may not be nearby so it may take me awhile to get here and I need my knife back."

"Agreed, I'll give you the knife as you leave," Dumbledore held out his hand to shake, which Harry stared at for a moment before quickly shaking hands then moving away as quickly as possible.

"Now sit down and eat something, then you can go." The teachers all moved back to their seats and Harry noticed that the man who had first caught him in the castle was hovering in the doorway to prevent his escape.

He glared at the back of the teacher's heads but sat down at the closest table at the end closest to the door. Where there were less people and he would run outside to Lightning the first chance he got.

**A/N yes it's been a long time and I'm sorry but I had two different directions this could go and I couldn't decide which to use. I will try and update sooner but I'll give no promises.**


End file.
